involves an ability to connect with the audience and do empathize with the audience. and i wonder if modern presidents lose that because of the isolation of the office. king was connected with the movement people he was with, lincoln was much more connected to the average person than any modern president. i just do not know if a modern president remembers his audience after six years in the office. mr. matthews: especially when your office is being infected everywhere you go -- confected everywhere you go. in your campaign, you have to sell. anyway, this has been a great night and we could go on, i do think these questions are great.

especially in comparison. thank you, it has been an honor. dr. carson, dr. wilson. thank you very much. [applause] >> you are watching american history tv, 48 hours of programming on american history every weekend on c-span3. follow us on twitter for the schedule of upcoming programs and history news. >> each week, american artifacts these americans into historic sites around the country. we visit the national museum of health in washington -- health

just outside of washington, d.c. to look at artifacts related to the assassination of president lincoln. guide: our final stop today is an exhibit on the assassination of president lincoln. these are artifacts collected during those hours that surgeons were treating him after he was shot at ford's theatre, and during, and after his autopsy the next day. you might remember that abraham lincoln is shot at fords theatre at about 10:30 a.m. on friday the 14th, 1855. this is just a few days after the surrender to grant at appomattox, effectively ending the civil war. lincoln is at the play, and shot in the back of the head by john wilkes booth by a small lead bullet. the bullet is actually on display here. the bullet was recovered the

the next day at an autopsy performed at the white house. in the hours just shortly after lincoln was shot, the surgeon general, surgeon general joseph barnes responds to the president. this is that peterson's house, directly across the street from ford's theatre. he calls for something called a probe, and we have noted that on the back here in display. the idea with the pro--- probe is that it would be threaded into the wound, and depending on how far the probe would go, it might identify where the fragment of the bullet was. they were not able to do so. the bullet, they found later was large behind lincoln's eye. but the probe was retained and eventually made its way to the museum holdings, and is part of exhibit -- the exhibit we have on display. the surgeon general, and army medical staff john woodward, and

another surgeon named edward curtis were at the president's bedside in the hours before he died, which was about 7:22 a.m. the next morning, the 15th of april, 1855. it was decided then that a postmortem would be performed very quickly. the president's body was removed to the white house, and the odds -- the autopsy was performed in a room that is now one of the president's dining rooms. it is during the autopsy that the bullet was recovered. the school -- skull would have been removed. as the story is recounted by dr. curtis, he lifted to the brain from the skull and the bullet fell into the bowl and made a

sound. there was a moment of silence and with that sound of the bullet in the china bowl was really the only sound making any noise at that exact moment. curtis reflected on it saying something to the effect that this is a lead ball, with the cannot yet measure the effect. the autopsy is completed and some fragments of lincoln's skull were retained by surgeons who was assisted at the -- who assisted at the autopsy. in some cases, one fragment was stuck on one of the doctors -- dr.'s tools. as he was cleaning his kit later that day, he found a bit of lincoln's skull fragments stuck in one of the saws. we also have on display, of the of lincoln's hair, removed from the site of the wound. several locks of hair are

accounted for in the notes from those hours before lincoln died. during the autopsy. these are just a few of those that were cut and given away to different people. another object though that is , on display relates again to dr. curtis. edward curtis, a surgeon on this -- the staff of the army medical museum is the assistant at autopsy. when he got home that night, the 15th of april, after the autopsy, he discovered that his undershirt and sleeves and shirt cuffs were staying with the best stained with the president's blood. mrs. curtis cut those cuffs off and put them in all below which they signed and endorsed. this is one of these shirt cuffs. both of these shirt cuffs are in the museum holdings. only one is on display. both of these objects have an interesting history. the bullet was used at the trial of the conspirators. the fragments of bone and hair

were in the care and holdings of others for many years. and most were collected in the early 1950's by an army medical museum curator. named helen. and, for the most part, have been displayed at the army medical museum and now the national museum of health and medicine for many decades. it is important to note that 2015 will mark the 150th anniversary of the assassination of president abraham lincoln. you can visit our website and watch these programs anytime. >> monday night, we met up with tim moynahan at the consumer electronics show. he gave us a tool of tv technology. >> this is organic light emitting diodes. it refers to the back lights.

it uses led backlights to color the display, and this one actually uses the individual led particles as a source of light. they can be turned on and turned off independently. with an led set, you will see light seeping through there. to my eyes, this is amazing. this is including the two buzzwords of the show. this is the holy grail of tv. >> monday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span2. >> up next, a debate inspired by the writings and correspondences of abraham lincoln and abolitionist frederick douglass. although the two men met on a handful